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@Uragirimono
It depends what you value,
Religions to my mind, are whats and oughts,
What existence is, our place in it, what we ought do,
Atheists 'still have whats and oughts,
There's even atheistic religions I'd say, such as Confucianism.
I vaguely value humans, is my reason.
I also ramble below weirdly in the rest of this post,
Don't feel a need to read the below, I just don't want to delete my thoughts.
. . .
I vaguely value individual human existence,
And to my thinking,
A zygote is a new human beginning,
I vaguely value people,
But human does and doesn't mean people,
Is a brain dead human a person?
Let's say the brain was removed, to remove any gray disagreement,
I don't believe in souls, though I use the term poetically at times,
If there's no brain, then there's no person,
'Still a human body,
And I 'do value humans,
But I 'might eat a human corpse, to survive a famine.
. . .
"Around week 5, your baby’s brain, spinal cord, and heart begin to develop. Your baby’s brain is part of the central nervous system, which also houses the spinal cord. There are three key components of a baby’s brain to consider. These include:
- Cerebrum: Thinking, remembering, and feeling occurs in this part of the brain.
- Cerebellum: This part of the brain is responsible for motor control, which allows the baby to move their arms and legs, among other things.
- Brain stem: Keeping the body alive is the primary role of the brain stem. This includes breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure."
Is a dog more a 'person than a fetus though?
Well, a dog might be even more a person than a newborn,
Certainly the in the ancient world, infanticide existed,
"In Greek society, an infant's worth was measured by its potential to fulfill a useful function in society. Thus Plato, in his Republic, maintained that society was better served if deformed newborns were "hidden away, in some appropriate manner that must be kept secret," a practice that likely included infanticide (460). Similarly Aristotle wrote in Politics: "As to the exposure and rearing of children, let there be a law that no deformed child shall live."
Aristotle also condoned abandonment as a method of population control, although he recommended early abortion in regions where the "regular customs hinder any of those born being exposed" (1335b).
In Sparta, where military strength was highly valued, infanticide may have reached its zenith. In Life of Lycurgus, Plutarch gives an account of the Spartan custom: "But if it was ill born and deformed they sent it to … a chasm-like place at the foot of Mount Taygetus, in the conviction that the life of that which nature had not well-equipped at the very beginning for health and strength, was of no advantage, either to itself or to the state" (16)."
In the modern age, we have China's one child policy,
Though that's not to say such is legal,
Also their antiquity, but the antiquity example is throughout the world,
"From the beginning of the one-child policy, there were concerns that it would lead to an imbalance in the sex ratio. Early in the 1980s, senior officials became increasingly concerned with reports of abandonment and female infanticide by parents desperate for a son."
"Elders in China often reach retirement age without the necessary pension or funds for health care; making sons seem an investment toward retirement. This lead some families to abandon female babies in public spaces in the hopes that the baby would be adopted by another family. The abandoned babies would oftentimes die. Sometimes, the baby would be trafficked by orphanages and adopted to wealthy families abroad. In the US, nearly 3,000 Chinese children were adopted in 2012.
“It is a taboo topic for the Chinese government, which acknowledges the problem exists
but also does not make public statistics about the number of children kidnapped or the number of children sold into adoption. Because of the implications for the tens of thousands of families in the United States and elsewhere in the West who have adopted children from China the topic is often taboo outside of China’s borders, too.” (From The Atlantic)
As a result of the one-child policy and the tradition of male heirs, there is currently a national gender imbalance. In China, there are 30 million more men than women."
Though I'm not sure that 30 million more men 'matters much in such a huge population.
. . .
Returning to what I value,
I value humans,
I value people,
TWS1405 says elsewhere on this site,
"potentiality ≠ actuality" - TWS1405
But potential 'does equal actuality in a sense, to my mind,
An infant is not an adult,
Monkeys exist in actuality more 'persons than an infant,
Ah, and here my nihilism and absurdity rears it's head,
I find myself in difficulty with 'perfect logic, each step and justification shown,
But that's the horrible 'part of it,
I can't even justify 'myself, or other humans as much people as I am,
And my 'care fo-
Ach,
'Too absurd,
. . .
. . .
A zygote, a fetus, an infant,
Are they not all human?
Not all to develop in that direction?
Do I not value humans and people?
. . .
And yet so many exceptions exist.
